I've said it badly. I hope you can get some sense of it, though.
Not at all; I think I understand you.
One thing I don't know if you realize, though, is that I've spent a fair bit of time studying Orthodox theology. I spent a couple of years listening to nearly everything on Ancient Faith Radio, for example-- and, to be honest with you, it was one of two things that prepared me to understand Platonic philosophy when I finally decided to take the plunge and try to make sense of Proclus a few years back. Now, I'm not going to claim that that makes me an expert on Orthodoxy. In the first case, I'm aware that AFR is basically Orthodoxy filtered through American Protestantism. And in the second case, I haven't attended a Divine Liturgy, and there are certain things that can only be understood through experience. But I think it may be more like someone who has read a number of detailed books about bowling and watched a few matches on TV, trying to talk about a related but not identical game.
Or maybe not. I've said before that, for many people, religion is a set of truths, received once and for always; these sorts of people either never convert or they convert once and for good. For others, it's an identity, like a race or a tribe; these types also convert either never or once, and they stay with their church for the same reason people take their hats off for the national anthem or raise a pint of Guinness on Saint Patrick's Day. But for some of us, it's a journey; one truth is received, understood, and integrated into a larger picture, with the Final Truth remaining ever elusive. My own journey has taken me on more and stranger paths than I ever expected, and I find it best to assume that I'm not the one in the drivers seat. If God intends me to become Orthodox, I suppose He'll accomplish it in His own good time; in the meantime, I believe I can do far more good bringing the Ideas that nourish my own spiritual life both to pagans and occultists (as in the post on Druidry) and to people who want to follow Christ but have good reasons for not joining any of the larger churches (as in the various posts on Esoteric Christianity and the Gospels).
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2022-09-23 02:59 pm (UTC)Not at all; I think I understand you.
One thing I don't know if you realize, though, is that I've spent a fair bit of time studying Orthodox theology. I spent a couple of years listening to nearly everything on Ancient Faith Radio, for example-- and, to be honest with you, it was one of two things that prepared me to understand Platonic philosophy when I finally decided to take the plunge and try to make sense of Proclus a few years back. Now, I'm not going to claim that that makes me an expert on Orthodoxy. In the first case, I'm aware that AFR is basically Orthodoxy filtered through American Protestantism. And in the second case, I haven't attended a Divine Liturgy, and there are certain things that can only be understood through experience. But I think it may be more like someone who has read a number of detailed books about bowling and watched a few matches on TV, trying to talk about a related but not identical game.
Or maybe not. I've said before that, for many people, religion is a set of truths, received once and for always; these sorts of people either never convert or they convert once and for good. For others, it's an identity, like a race or a tribe; these types also convert either never or once, and they stay with their church for the same reason people take their hats off for the national anthem or raise a pint of Guinness on Saint Patrick's Day. But for some of us, it's a journey; one truth is received, understood, and integrated into a larger picture, with the Final Truth remaining ever elusive. My own journey has taken me on more and stranger paths than I ever expected, and I find it best to assume that I'm not the one in the drivers seat. If God intends me to become Orthodox, I suppose He'll accomplish it in His own good time; in the meantime, I believe I can do far more good bringing the Ideas that nourish my own spiritual life both to pagans and occultists (as in the post on Druidry) and to people who want to follow Christ but have good reasons for not joining any of the larger churches (as in the various posts on Esoteric Christianity and the Gospels).